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[personal profile] rfmcdonald
Via Boingboing, I came across an article from the English-language news site Asharq Alawsat that claimed that Saudi religious police attacked by two of the women they preyed upon.

Head of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in the Eastern province Dr. Mohamed bin Marshood al-Marshood, told Asharq Al Awsat that two of the Commission's employees were verbally insulted and attacked by two inappropriately-dressed females, in the old market in Prince Bandar street, an area usually crowded with shoppers during the month of Ramadan.

According to Dr. Al-Marshood, the two commission members approached the girls in order to "politely" advise and guide them regarding their inappropriate clothing.

Consequently, the two girls started verbally abusing the commission members, which then lead to one of the girls pepper-spraying them in the face as the other girl filmed the incident on her mobile phone, while continuing to hurl insults at them.

The Eastern Province's head of the commission also revealed that with the help of the police his two employees were able to control the situation.

The two females were then escorted to the police station where they apologized for the attack, were cautioned and then released.


As commenters at Boing Boing pointed out, given the Commission's past record--back in 2002, for instance, it allowed fifteen girls and young women to burn to death in their school because they weren't properly covered--the word "politely" is possibly a euphemism. It's probably also a good thing that the cell phone video hasn't gotten very broad circulation in the Anglophone world, or that one of the girls didn't have a taser--if nothing else, they do seem to have been released in short measure.

This whole sadly funny episode reminds me of Margriet de Moor's April Sign and Sight observation about the what the sort of misogynistic gender relations favoured by regimes like the Saudi actually means.

How sex-obsessed is a culture that teaches a woman that she is basically a walking, sitting or reclining set of genitals? How over-aroused is a society in which men are expected to have no qualms about throwing themselves on any woman who happens to walk by, unless a powerful signal, in the form of a divinely ordained dress code, forbids them to do so? Our obsession may look different to theirs, but in fact they are just two sides of the same coin.


Isn't it sad how it's so easy for fanatics to project their own flawed internal dynamics onto other unsuspecting people?
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